Service Manager - Adoption Service

Job Title: Service Manager - Adoption Service
Starting Salary: £61,443 + £7,332 enhanced market payment progressing to £68,775 + £6,666 market enhanced payment per annum.
Hours: 37 per week
Main Base Location: Rainbow House, St Albans*
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Childrens Services

*The service has teams based at Farnham House Stevenage, Apsley Hemel Hempstead , and Rainbow House, St Albans.

The post holder will be expected to spend time with all teams as well as teams based at Apsley and attend relevant meetings at all sites with an average of 2 days office working and remainder home working (dependent on the needs of the service).

Occasional travel across Adopt East will be required too.

About the team

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a service manager to manage our 4 adoption teams comprising of 2 adoption assessment teams , a family finding team and an adoption support team as well as our combined fostering and adoption recruitment team to shape the vision of adoption in Hertfordshire.

The adoption teams are made of qualified social workers and children’s practitioners, you will supervise the 5 team managers. The teams are well established and motivated to get the best outcomes for children .

We have an ambitious service supporting the modernisation agenda in adoption.

We support children to maintain relationships with their birth family in a safe and meaningful way and value the contribution of birth relatives, adopted people and adoptive parents to our service development .

As part of a regional alliance, Adopt East, we work in collaboration with 7 other local authority partners developing best practice and sharing performance data to optimise outcomes for adoptive families. We are looking for someone with the drive and commitment to lead our adoption service and enable children to live in stable, loving homes.

This role will see you work closely with social care teams across children’s services to ensure children have the right care plan in place at the earliest opportunity including ensuring early permanence is considered where appropriate. The post holder will also link with, and support partner agencies across legal, health and education as well as the Agency Decision Maker for adoption.

Additionally, you will also have responsibility for our adoption and fostering recruitment team who recruit and support prospective adopters and foster carers start their journey as we as delivering campaigns to support ongoing recruitment.

About the role

Key elements of the role are:

• Management of 4 adoption team managers comprising of 2 adoption assessment teams , a family finding team and an adoption support team as well as the management of the combined fostering and adoption recruitment team
• Monitoring the ongoing recruitment and training of prospective adopters
• Act as the Adoption Support Services Advisor (ASSA) whose role is to give advice and information to anyone affected by adoption
• Attendance at adoption panel in the absence of the panel advisor.
• Oversight of the assessment of prospective adopters
• Oversight of family finding for children with a plan of adoption as well as tracking children with a parallel plan f adoption
• Oversight of support services for adopted children and their families as well as oversight of adopted adults access to record
• Contribution to wider service developments
• Participation in regional meetings and contribution to service developments that benefit the region.
• Participation in national workstreams and contribute to the modernising of adoption nationally.
• Performance management including oversight of service performance, timeliness, data and resource management to ensure children can achieve permanency in a timely way.
• Working with children’s social work team in a supportive and advisory capacity helping to consider if adoption is in the best interests of a child.
• Financial oversight of a range of budgets as well as financial agreements linked to adoption allowances.
• Ensure that the voice of the adoptee, adopter and birth relative is central to service delivery

About you

Essential:

• Social work qualified and registered with Social Work England
• At least 3 years post qualifying experience including relevant management experience
• Experience and awareness of the processes involved in assessing and supporting prospective adopters.
• A sound understanding of adoption, adoption legislation and the modernisation of adoption agenda
• Ability to drive across Hertfordshire, Adopt East and occasionally nationally
• Excellent communication skills
• Budget management skills
• Ability to work under pressure
• Experience of working to deadlines
• Data analysis skills
• Ability to develop the support offer for a diverse community of adoptive families
• Visionary leadership skills

Desirable:

• Experience of working with adoptive families at a management level

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is within the Health and Social Care Services, level HSC14 job profile. Please locate this via: Job profiles - Health and social care

This is a challenging and rewarding opportunity to continue to shape the future of adoption services in Hertfordshire as well as across Adopt East as we continue our journey of developing our services to meet the evolving needs of our adoption community.

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Lynn Knowles (lynn.knowles@hertfordshire.gov.uk) informal discussion about the role.

Interview Date: 12th December - in Person

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.